Each day here on numberFire, we'll be providing you with four potential offenses to stack in your daily fantasy lineups. These are the offenses that provide huge run potential on that given day based on matchups and other factors.
After reading through these suggestions, make sure to check out our daily projections. These can either let you know which players to include in each stack, or which guy best complements said stack.
Another great tool is our custom optimal lineups, which are available for premium subscribers. Within the tool, we've added the option to stack teams -- you choose the team you want to stack, show how many players you want to use within the stack, and the tool will create a lineup based on this that you can then customize.
Now, let's get to the stacks. I won't be including the game at Coors in my suggestions because you already know you should try to fit those bats in your lineup if you can. Here are the teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.
Baltimore Orioles
Putting the Baltimore Orioles in Yankee Stadium is a dangerous, dangerous proposition, my friend. They sit third in the Majors in slugging percentage, third in wOBA, and seventh in home runs. That's got some blow-up ability with Adam Warren on the bump.
Through his first five starts, Warren has a 4.78 ERA, a 4.34 FIP and a 4.85 xFIP. He's slightly above average in his ground-balls induced but not to a point where I'd avoid stacking against him. One of the bigger things here is that he doesn't strike many guys out (4.78 strikeouts per nine), and that has been potentially the biggest offensive weakness for the Orioes. They sit fourth in the league in strikeout percentage at 22.2 percent.
The one downside of this stack is the pricing. Both Chris Davis and Manny Machado cost $5,100 on DraftKings, and former punt-play gawd Jimmy Paredes is up to $4,500. That said, Adam Jones's $4,700 price tag seems low for a guy who's so stupidly good. He's a better match-up against lefties, but he still posts a .329/.376/.506 slash against right-handers. I'll take that at his price in a match-up like this in a heartbeat.
Cincinnati Reds
The Reds may have the best stacking opponent today in Hector Noesi. The big question would be whether or not the offense can exploit that match-up.
Cincinnati's offense has been average in just about every way this year as they rank 17th in wOBA and 20th in runs scored. However, Noesi's first three starts have been two against Minnesota and one against Cleveland, and those two high-flying offenses have touched him up for a 6.75 ERA and a 6.98 FIP. These inflated numbers have come even with opponents only hitting .225 on balls in play. Stackalicious.
I should note that I would be a significant amount lower on this stack if the league were to suspend Joey Votto prior to the game for bumping an umpire on Wednesday. He's one of the better values at $4,600 on DraftKings, and he has murdered right-handed pitching with a .676 slugging percentage this year. The stack may be affordable without him, but the offensive upside would go down without his bat in the lineup.
Boston Red Sox
I could see a solid argument for stacking the Jays here because their offense is very much superior to that of the Red Sox. I ended up picking the Sox, though, by a thin margin because their top-level options are cheaper and Wade Miley, for all his faults, is a better starter than Aaron Sanchez. Either way, the scoreboard will get its cardio in tonight.
The interesting thing about Sanchez is that he has been crazy consistent this year. In his five starts, he has allowed either two or three earned runs in each outing. Never more; never less. What makes him a bad match-up against Boston is that it has been walks that have gotten him into trouble, and no team has had a higher walk percentage this year than Boston.
It's only a sample size of 64 batters, but left-handers have been using Sanchez as a launch pad this year. They are slashing .340/.453/.623 for a .458 wOBA. I'd assume the Red Sox, who have mostly decent right-handed bats, will try to shift their lineup around to get as many dudes in the left-handed batter's box as possible. If they do and they end up near the top of the order, then they should provide you with some sweet value.
Washington Nationals
It's going to be warm and toasty in D.C. today, and the balls be ready to fly. I don't believe that Eric Stults on the mound will do much to hinder the happiness.
It may not have the reputation of being so, but Nationals Park is decently hitter-friendly. It ranked six in ESPN's Park Factor last year despite not ranking well in the home run factor. Bryce Harper is doing his darndest to change the second half of that statement.
Harper doesn't have the platoon split advantage here, but he actually hits lefties relatively well. There are also options here that do have the platoon advantage. Last year, Wilson Ramos slashed .325/.345/.475 off of lefties. This isn't mind-bogglingly sweet, but it is better production than you're paying for with his $4,100 price tag on DraftKings.